(Bloomberg) – The GameStop Corp. claims that Keith Gill – known online as ‘Roaring Kitty’ – claimed to own large volumes late on Wednesday as the company’s shares tumbled in the latter part of trading.
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GameStop $20 calls expiring on June 21 were traded 93,266 times, most of which occurred after 3:30 p.m. While the average transaction on the day was 21 contracts, transactions in the final period of the day were almost twice as large.
In a social media post earlier this month, Gill claimed to have purchased 120,000 of the contracts, while a subsequent message indicated he had not yet closed his position.
News of his position caused the shares to nearly double this month to above $45 before retreating. The company benefited from the rally by selling $2.14 billion worth of shares. With expiration approaching, the question remains whether Gill would exercise the contracts to receive shares, or close the position.
While there’s no way to say whether he was involved in Wednesday’s trading frenzy, the specter of the stock’s main booster exiting some or all of his position could weigh on the stock, which has fell as much as 19% on the day and closed 17% lower. for $25.46.
The $20 calls traded as high as $13.90 each Wednesday and fell to $6.40 at the close. That’s still above his alleged average purchase price of $5.6754.
(Updates with additional context from fourth paragraph)
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